Publicity. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is an act or device designed to attract public interest. Farmers bureau insurance group recently did some of this, though I don’t think it was very well carried out.

Let me start off with telling you I drive a lot. I love in Blue Springs, so I commute to school, and also up to North Kansas city, and around the metro area frequently. As I was driving around this summer, I began to notice some billboards with a barn in the background and the text, “You don’t have to be a farmer.” Okay, I thought to myself, I don’ t have to be a farmer. I already knew this, I could go to the story and buy my corn and beef. Why was this such a catching tagline? I’m not sure it caught anyone else’s attention. I think it was just a little bit of my PR side kicking in. I waited a few weeks, expecting the billboards to change, but weeks and weeks passed and nothing happened.

I even Googled “You don’t have to be a farmer billboard” or “You don’t have to be a farmer campaign” and “You don’t have to be a farmer billboard Kansas City” and “You don’t have to be a farmer event.” Because there was no company logo on the billboard, I was at a loss. My Google searches returned results about farmer’s markets or billboard companies, nothing about my specific billboard.

Finally, after the billboard had been up for at least a month, it finally change to be a complete sentence, “You don’t have to be a farmer…to save on insurance” followed up with the Farmers Insurance Bureau Name and Logo at the bottom. Aaahhh, I said, now I get it.

However, like I said before, it was poorly carried out. When I searched for it, Farmers should have paid for some advertising or something so when I Googled their first billboard tagline it would link to them. If I didn’t have a PR background, I would have easily lost interest with the words, “You don’t have to be a farmer.” Like I said, these signs were all around town and there was no clue given what they were talking about.

Honestly, I think their marketing/advertising department was being lazy. They should have just gone with the second billboard, “You don’t have to be a farmer…to save on insurance.” That might have done them some more good.

One Response to Farmers Insurance

That billboard caught my eyes too. I heard that the company has been getting a lot of angry phone calls from people asking about the billboard. I cannot be more agree with you. It was a bad example of publicity. It would have been better off to use the second billboard, or even to put another billboard couple miles behind that for clarification.